Month: November 2018

Claire Wright writes:A recommendation urging no further community hospital bed closures in Devon has been voted down by Conservative councillors on Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee.

The recommendation, which was debated on Thursday (22 November) was part of a set of measures set out in a scrutiny spotlight review aimed at supporting the care at home service (or rapid response) to be more effective.

Highlighted in particular as a challenging area were services for end of life care, which have been put under considerable pressure, especially since the loss of community hospital beds. … read on at Claire’s blog

It’s time to call a halt to this accelerating self-harm, which also threatens our farming, health, university and small business sectors – and has already seen living standards decline. I shall be asking the County Council on 6th December to support a new referendum in which voters can choose between accepting the miserable deal the Government has negotiated or remaining in the European Union.

Yesterday in Parliament, Neil Parish MP said: There is much in the withdrawal agreement that I agree with, especially on food and farming, but it is not good enough as it stands. The Northern Ireland backstop threatens the integrity of the United Kingdom and weakens our negotiating position, and my farming instincts tell me that we should not hand over £39 billion before we get the deal. Please will the Prime Minister listen to these concerns and renegotiate the deal before we put it before the House?

On 23 June 2016 Neil voted Remain. Two days later he backed Boris Johnson for PM, then Andrea Leadsom. Yesterday’s comments complete his transformation to a Gove-style Brexiteer, demanding a renegotiation which will make things even worse than May’s extremely poor deal.

His statement that the ‘Northern Ireland backstop threatens the integrity of the UK’ is totally misleading. The ‘hard border’, which would come into existence without the backstop, would risk the return of violence to Ireland, and the threat of a hard border has increased support in Northern Ireland for unity with the Irish republic – this is what threatens the unity of the United Kingdom. But who in the so-called Conservative and Unionist Party really cares about Ireland, North or South?

His remarks on the £39 billion payment are just plain stupid – as Theresa May replied, ‘this is about the United Kingdom’s legal obligations. I hope that every Member of this House will recognise that the United Kingdom is a country that meets its legal obligations.’

These elements of the Withdrawal Agreement are necessary if Brexit is to happen, unless Neil wants a car-crash, chaotic Brexit. But they remind us of the huge problems which even an agreed Brexit will bring. Neil was right first time – the UK should stop the gigantic self-harm of Brexit, and give the voters a chance to decide to stay in the EU.

Our letter (with the full list of signatories) can be found here. Claire Wright has also signed, along with Jacqi Hodgson, our Green colleague in the Non-Aligned Group on Devon County Council (that’s 3 of the 4 members of our group), and also several Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative members (but apart from Claire and me, no one else from East Devon).

The Adult Care and Health Management Team’s report on Risk Management report to Thursday’s meeting of the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee says: ‘one risk has increased to Very High from High, this being “Market Capacity: Adult Social Care (Personal Care)”.

The AC&H team comment:

The personal care market capacity remains under pressure across the county with levels of demand exceeding the supply. Where care cannot be sourced an interim contingency plan is always enacted that ensures the safety of any individual and may include temporary accommodation in a residential facility or drawing on other arrangements including informal networks of care and support. The risk is also heightened currently due toincreased likelihood of provider failure. Members will be aware of a recent CQC formal notification to local authorities around Allied Healthcare of potential provider failure as an example of this.

Our mitigating actions in this area which are predicated on joint working across the health and care system include

Support the recruitment and retention of staff (including promotion of our Proud to Care initiative).

Reduce demand on services by promoting and growing our short term offer that supports people back to independence in a timely way.

Achieve greater efficiency by working with our contractors to minimise travelling time and make best use of our existing workforce.